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PA Weight Loss Challenge: Beware the Ides of March!

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I know a bit of competition can be a fine motivator for many, but I don't think it has to be, or would necessarily benefit from it.

I don't intend to compete with anyone but myself. Doing the elliptical lets me know when I'm running farther, working harder (calories burned that is) and how my heart rate responds to the changing stresses. Knowing that I lost 10.2% of my body mass while another forumer only lost 9.8% doesn't really change anything.

To take this to a "everyone gets a medal for participating" level of mushiness, just being a part of it and working on the issue means we've all already won to some degree or another. It's just a matter of sticking with it and focusing on the long term goals.

I'm in as well, just restarted my regimen this week anyway. I originally started at 285 and dropped down to an all-time low of 188, about a month ago. My vacation however bumped me back up to 195 so I'm trying to get down to my target goal weight now.

I'm going to give some thought to participating, but I'm definitely going to monitor the thread and maybe jump in later.

At the moment I'm 195lbs (6' tall, 32 years old), down from a record high (after a few years of depression eating and MMOing) of 335. Right now my main focus is toning, worrying about these fucking stretch marks that aren't going to go anywhere, and building muscle (meaning my weight will likely go up a bit, but that's ok).

I'm going to give some thought to participating, but I'm definitely going to monitor the thread and maybe jump in later.

At the moment I'm 195lbs (6' tall, 32 years old), down from a record high (after a few years of depression eating and MMOing) of 335. Right now my main focus is toning, worrying about these fucking stretch marks that aren't going to go anywhere, and building muscle (meaning my weight will likely go up a bit, but that's ok).

It took me, like, three years to lose all of that.

As someone that has a lot to lose, do you mind me asking how you did it?

Man, what awesome timing, I decided that this week I'm going to start getting my act together as far as health goes.

tehsloth/tehsloth/250/195, which still isn't exactly fantastic on my 5 foot 8 frame but it's definitely going to be a solid improvement. I walk a mile and a half M-F and I don't eat too terribly, I just REALLY need to get soda out of my life and try to space my meals out. I *until today* would just drink soda or whatever all day and then when I got home from work eat one big meal. Some of my coworkers have been talking about doing this lemon juice/ cayenne/ maple syrup thing which doesn't seem like a good idea to me, so working on this with people from PA sounds better.

I'm going to give some thought to participating, but I'm definitely going to monitor the thread and maybe jump in later.

At the moment I'm 195lbs (6' tall, 32 years old), down from a record high (after a few years of depression eating and MMOing) of 335. Right now my main focus is toning, worrying about these fucking stretch marks that aren't going to go anywhere, and building muscle (meaning my weight will likely go up a bit, but that's ok).

It took me, like, three years to lose all of that.

As someone that has a lot to lose, do you mind me asking how you did it?

As trite as it sounds? Diet and exercise.

I cut out a lot of sugar from my diet (soda, fruit juice, etc.), started eating more lean meats, vegetables, whole grains, etc. And stopped eating take out and fast food.

Exercise was a bitch at first. I could barely walk around the block without needing to rest. But I kept at it, then graduated to riding my bike around town, jogging, and hitting up the gym for the elliptical trainer and free weights. It wasn't a perfect plan, or really a "plan" at all. I just kind of changed the way I did things and tried out various methods until I found what worked for me. The biggest part was just finding the motivation to say "Hey, I fucking hate being this heavy/large. So what do I need to do to fix that?"

Man, what awesome timing, I decided that this week I'm going to start getting my act together as far as health goes.

tehsloth/tehsloth/250/195, which still isn't exactly fantastic on my 5 foot 8 frame but it's definitely going to be a solid improvement. I walk a mile and a half M-F and I don't eat too terribly, I just REALLY need to get soda out of my life and try to space my meals out. I *until today* would just drink soda or whatever all day and then when I got home from work eat one big meal. Some of my coworkers have been talking about doing this lemon juice/ cayenne/ maple syrup thing which doesn't seem like a good idea to me, so working on this with people from PA sounds better.

If people are trying to get you to do some kind of crash diet like that, don't do it. Things like that, even if they give short-term benefits of some kind, are never a replacement for solid exercise and correct eating habits.

And, yes...cut soda out of your diet completely. There's really nothing good about it. It's just sugar water that will increase your waist size.

ChillyWilly on June 2010

PAFC Top 10 Finisher in Seasons 1 and 3. 2nd in Seasons 4 and 5. Final 4 in Season 6.

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HerrCronElection 2016: not the end of the worldBut you can see it from hereRegistered Userregular

ChillyWilly, great progress. I wish I'd had the sense to take photos of my progress, though I'm still not confident enough to take my shirt off. Need to tone mah belly and chest. But I think perhaps from this point on might be a good idea for me.

Howdy guys. I am really really proud about dnd really just deciding that now is the time. To be honest? I think shirtless (not braless, for lady forumers), should be mandatory. I know it sucks, and you look like a hogbeast from slargnack 9, but we are a group determined to change! I say we should all have candid photos in the OP, but if that is too intense; we could settle for imgs on our morlock sparkteam.

Creating that sparkteam, I tried to encapsulate the flippant nature of DnD. Weightloss can be a joke, but our results matter. If it is a kilogram or an oz, it is sucess.

But seriously, jeans companies should think about the tensile strength of denim. I just ripped my 17th pair by crossing my legs.

I'm 280 and 5 foot. My biggest problems in my addiction to cocacola and love of chocolate and pizza. I can get very bad tempered if I don't drink coke so that's another reason to quit it. I also don't know how to cook.

I'm 280 and 5 foot. My biggest problems in my addiction to cocacola and love of chocolate and pizza. I can get very bad tempered if I don't drink coke so that's another reason to quit it. I also don't know how to cook.

S. Jesus, I have to remind you that cooking is easy.

You see that bluishred thing that hurts to touch? That is fire. What you do is find a piece of meat, cut the fat off and place it on some metal that has been heated by fire for 10 minutes or so. After 5 min, you flip that meat, and devour the smell of meats while it sits there for 5 more minutes, then you whip it off.

Working on updating the OP, but I just want to throw in to the chorus of people who say it CAN be done.

This is me, 3 years ago at my heaviest.

This is me a month ago.

I went from 260 to 180. I been stuck at 180 for a while now, which is what spurred me to do this thread. I think I got so used to telling myself that I had already done enough that I stopped trying as hard. That's hopefully changing.

So yeah guys (And gals) it can be done, there's plenty of proof in this thread already and we haven't even gotten started.

Alright, I'm signing up. After radiation last year I lost 30 pounds, which I guess was all muscle, and I've since put on 40-50 pounds since I'm less active. I'm trying to fix that, but I can't work out heavily right now because of a pulled or torn rib muscle. In the mean time, I'm dieting and I'm signing up.

I originally started at 350 lbs back in Nov '08. I'm currently 302. I was down to 289 a few months ago, but I fell off the wagon. My long term goal is 200 lbs even, but right now I'm gunning for 250.

I'm pretty good with my planned meals and I drink a shitton of water every day (I have a kidney disorder, have some pretty specific instructions from a specialist) and I (usually) exercise regularly (I go to a gym 5 days a week). Like I said, I fell off the wagon, today I climbed back on and I'm joining this thread to keep me on!

I'm in, although I probably won't start in earnest until I get settled in Kentucky (I'm moving right now).

I've been trying for awhile to get down from about 180 to 155/150 or so (I'm 5'5", 24 years old). I've managed to get to the point where I hover around 170 (approx where I am now) but about the best I end up doing past that is touching on 165 every once in awhile.

Once I move, I'm hoping I'll be able to do a lot more exercise like biking and tennis and whatnot. Do we have a specific start date, or is it pretty much "sign up and then try to make progress"?

Working on updating the OP, but I just want to throw in to the chorus of people who say it CAN be done.

This is me, 3 years ago at my heaviest.

This is me a month ago.

I went from 260 to 180. I been stuck at 180 for a while now, which is what spurred me to do this thread. I think I got so used to telling myself that I had already done enough that I stopped trying as hard. That's hopefully changing.

So yeah guys (And gals) it can be done, there's plenty of proof in this thread already and we haven't even gotten started.

Well done, Ky. That is some massive improvement on your part. What you've done is pretty much what I'm trying to do. Around 260 to 180.

Listen to this man, folks. Losing weight can be done by anyone (unless you have some kind of glandular disorder, etc) with proper diet and exercise as long as you have the willpower to put time and effort into both of them.

I've seen some people say that they can't get away from their cokes, sweets and other awesome foods. Here's some advice: You don't have to. You just have to cut back on them a lot. You can see in my above photos that I've made improvements this year, but one of my secrets is that I have one day out of the week (usually Fridays or Saturdays) where I will eat something amazingly trashy. I mean I will call Domino's, order a large with chicken, jalapenos, pepperonis and a ton of cheese and I will devour that whole thing by myself.

I can't cite them right now, but I've read studies that show having a junk day helps keep your psyche from getting burned out on eating healthy food all the time. If you let yourself go for a meal or two on the weekends and eat right the rest of the time, you can still see results.

For reference, my normal foods are always whole grain (bread, wraps, shredded wheat in the mornings), as low sodium as possible and as low fat as possible. I eat turkey and chicken almost every day and with the chicken, I generally throw on some brown rice or quinoa (look it up if you don't know what it is...wonderful stuff) after I'm done cooking it. Admittedly, I don't get enough fruits and vegetables in my diet, but I try make up for it by drinking at least 2 cups of V8 Fusion a day (Without a doubt, the least amount of calories and sugar you're likely to find in any commercial fruit juice).

Anyway, it can be done with some control. You have to have the mental power before you can change your physical appearance. If you're ever having a hard time, come to the thread. We'll be glad to help.

ChillyWilly on June 2010

PAFC Top 10 Finisher in Seasons 1 and 3. 2nd in Seasons 4 and 5. Final 4 in Season 6.

31 people are signed up for this. That's way more than I expect, and freaking awesome.

First weigh in will be in 30 days. I updated the OP a bit, if I'm missing any info from anyone send me a pm. Same for anything that should go in the OP. And if anyone wants their pic, I'll spoiler it under their name in the long list.

I found a workout posted at the rec center's pool that added up to 900m, and so I did that (it took longer than it was supposed to, but I feel pretty good about it anyway). That's 300 more meters than I usually swim Less intense on the muscles, more cardio, which is what I want.

I'm 280 and 5 foot. My biggest problems in my addiction to cocacola and love of chocolate and pizza. I can get very bad tempered if I don't drink coke so that's another reason to quit it. I also don't know how to cook.

I had to stop thinking of losing weight as a diet and more of a lifestyle change. Cut out the simple carbs, added fiber, read ingredients removing products that had hydrogenated oils and HFCS, and exercised. For exercise it started on an elliptical machine and dumbells. Once I got to about 220 I started running using the couch to 5k program. That's a solid two years so far of losing and keeping off weight.

It's amazing how much better you can feel. Now if there was only a non-surgical way to get rid of the excess skin. D:

I'm 280 and 5 foot. My biggest problems in my addiction to cocacola and love of chocolate and pizza. I can get very bad tempered if I don't drink coke so that's another reason to quit it. I also don't know how to cook.

I forgot to mention, I'm hoping to reach about 10 stone.

Thankfully, being a decent cook is ridiculously easy. If you pick up a cook book and have kitchenware, you can make tons and tons of stuff that's not complicated. Also, the more you cook, the more comfortable you become with it, and the more you play around. Hell, I made a marinara sauce without having any idea of how you actually do it, I just tried a method that seemed like it might work. And it did! And it was awesome.